During her solo retrospective held at the Asia Society Texas from April to September, 2025, host curator Owen Duffy planned to fete Margaret on her 92nd birthday. The planets were aligned for Tiffany Beres, guest curator, and Prof. An-yi Pan (my father’s former student) to give short lectures followed by a custom-designed cake. The only misalignment was that the planned catalog rollout had been delayed.
Can one imagine a birthday at 92, an age when many contemporaries are no longer, where 135 friends and supporters attended? It speaks to Margaret’s large Houston-based community and her artistic staying power. Attendees included a trustee, friends and family, her calligraphy students, National Taiwan Normal University alumni and various art-interested viewers, many Chinese of course.
Before the celebration, Margaret and I went around the largely empty galleries. A number of attendees approached her. Beyond the obligatory praise, two common themes struck me. First, they described ‘being deeply moved by her paintings’ suggesting a more powerful impact beyond the visual. Second, they told her they had been to the exhibition two or three times, providing evidence of the first. As always, Margaret was her smiling gracious self and connected easily with her fans.
During the lectures, Margaret was intrigued by An-yi’s insightful juxtaposition of her ‘Autumn hills’ 1968 (Harvard) and Gong Xian’s ‘Ten thousand peaks and ten thousand valleys’ circa 1670 (Reitberg) – that my father wrote about. Later, she said, ‘even though there are similarities in our compositions, our styles are actually very different.’ She was seated next to Nancy Allen, a major museum donor, at the front table. But when Margaret later asked me to identify who was sitting alongside her, Margaret realized she had mistaken Nancy for a collector and admitted that she committed a small faux pas. Quickly we began to laugh at the image of two doddering matrons speaking nonsense to each other, each thinking the other must be crazy.
Afterwords, the specially-designed two-layered cake was intended to mimic Margaret’s iconic ‘Floating without end’ 1970 (CT/B Li collection) and fed the entire gathering. As you can see, it indeed captured her flowing ‘chi’ strokes and palette colors. TC was brought by Paul and sat nearby enjoying the cake. Many old friends approached TC as well.
Although Margaret received the first piece of cake, people quickly began to line up to speak with her and I daresay she didn’t get to ingest any. I marveled at the line which stretched a dozen or so long. Margaret was glowing, radiating warmth and fully engaged with each, recalling crossed paths and old times. Fortunately, friends provided some hydration. A number brought items for her to sign, one even brought a piece of calligraphy inked by Margaret in 1992. Her magnetic draw was eye-opening and heartwarming.
I began chuckling to myself as I observed the long queue … to break up the tedium, I went up to Margaret and whispered in her ear, ‘it’s like you’re the pope giving out blessings – everyone wants to be blessed by you!’ We both started laughing and laughing. Continuing to riff on her exalted status, I went up and down the line and told them that when they reached Margaret, each would be granted a additional decade of longevity. One immediately responded, ‘I‘ve been through once but need 20 years, so I’m going through again! ’When I later recounted this story to Owen, he automatically made an impromptu sign of the cross and Margaret quickly responded with her own flourish … of course air brushstrokes!
It was a wonderful celebration, Margaret was thrilled to her core and you can appreciate her sense of humor!
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